Short answer
Handoffs can fail when ownership, expectations or response times are unclear. Each department owns its own work, and the handoff sits in the gap between. Without an agreed definition of “ready,” one named owner and an expected response time, work waits, comes back for rework or gets lost. The fix is rarely a new system. It’s agreeing on those three things for the handful of handoffs that matter most, and having the managers on both sides practice them.
The longer answer
Most reporting measures functions, not the space between them. So a late order shows up as a sales problem or an operations problem, and the handoff that caused it never appears anywhere.
Start with the two or three handoffs that cause the most pain. For each one, agree what “ready” means, who owns the work while it’s in transit and how fast the receiving team responds. Then get the managers on both sides in one room to practice using it on a real case.
It’s simple. It’s also rare, because nobody’s job description includes it.